I would imagine the accidents you saw were as a result of various things: poor bike handling skills, lack of course reconnaissance, gravel/mud, high tyre pressures or maybe avoiding another rider.
_________________25 Years since it all began....

I would imagine the accidents you saw were as a result of various things: poor bike handling skills, lack of course reconnaissance, gravel/mud, high tyre pressures or maybe avoiding another rider.

that...but mostly poor skills for the conditions...

So I was thinking that, perhaps paradoxically, if instead of the low rpm/high torque grinding I was doing to keep the power output low...if I'd hit the hills faster and maintained a higher power output, it might have kept the torque lower and avoided some slipping.

^^ When out of the saddle by the looks of it. I've had that a few times, not a lot you can do if you're out of the saddle on a steep hill, other than to slog away in the saddle if your gears are low enough.
_________________25 Years since it all began....

^^ When out of the saddle by the looks of it. I've had that a few times, not a lot you can do if you're out of the saddle on a steep hill, other than to slog away in the saddle if your gears are low enough.

And be ready to unclip SUPER fast

I was having a few issues in the hills around Llandudno on Sunday. I just hunted for the driest grippiest line, and kept the weight as far back as possible.

^^ When out of the saddle by the looks of it. I've had that a few times, not a lot you can do if you're out of the saddle on a steep hill, other than to slog away in the saddle if your gears are low enough.

Yeah, up. I stay seated, always. Easy, plodding to keep the power down. Even at 37rpm on 34x30 I was over 90% FTP quite often.

Rest in pieces to your knees. Sounds like you should invest in a compact or a different cassette?

Lose body fat, increase FTP is the only route forward left to me

Are you sure? 37rpm is not something I've ever heard of. Even my "low rpm" work is in the 60's.

Surely you could get a longer cage rear mech and have a largest cassette sprocket up to mid 30's? And even go triple on the front?!

According to bikecalc.com, if you were 34-30 for example, you'd have been going c5km/h. At that speed, it's probably more energy effective to get off and push!

I genuinely can't fathom 37rpm and staying upright! Plus, I would have thought that will totally skew your power seeing as it will be so up and down throughout the pedal stroke at that cadence. You might have been "capping" it on the screen, but surely the force needed on the downstroke will have been significant, with then a big reduction in the deadspot. Although I guess at 37rpm, with 1s refresh rates, you'll be getting multiple readings per revolution! That said, I'm sure DCR has said stuff in the past that power meters (other than maybe a powertap hub) fall down at seriously low rpm as the power = torque x rpm calculation effectively becomes invalid for the reasons I've implied above.

If I run out of gears and and cadence heads down to <60 its out of the saddle stuff, I would never sit there and maintain that, once out of the saddle body weight does a lot of the work and your knees are straighter.